The English Test

Students taking WritePlacer® are presented with a prompt and asked to write an essay of 300 to 600 words. A prompt consists of a short passage. Following the passage is an assignment that requires the student to focus on the issue addressed in the passage.

Your essay will be given a holistic score that represents how clearly and effectively you expressed your position. The following six characteristics of writing will be considered:

• Purpose and Focus
  The extent to which you present information in a unified and coherent manner, clearly addressing the issue.
• Organization and Structure
  The extent to which you order and connect ideas.
• Development and Support
  The extent to which you develop and support ideas.
• Sentence Variety and Style
  The extent to which you craft sentences and paragraphs demonstrating control of vocabulary, voice, and structure.
• Critical Thinking
  The extent to which you communicate a point of view and demonstrate reasoned relationships among ideas.

Scores on WritePlacer® range from 1 to 8.  An essay that is too short to be evaluated, written on a topic other than the one presented, or written in a language other than English will be given a score of zero.

Resources

• Online Writing Lab at Purdue University
  Students can use this link and search for help in the following areas: writing process, sentence structure, or specific grammar work such as subject/verb agreement, use of pronouns, capitalization, punctuation, etc.  The site has a teaching section and quizzes for every aspect.
•  NCC Writing Lab Resources